For providing an assistance to a person who has a difficulty in walking by himself owing to the lack of muscular force, and an aid in a walking rehabilitation, it has been proposed to use a walking assistance device that provides a power assist to the effort of a wearer to walk. Typically, a walking assistance device of this type comprises a power actuator consisting of an electric motor or the like and secured to a waist or hip part of the wearer and a femoral support member secured to a femoral part of the wearer, and the femoral assisting force generated by the power actuator is transmitted to the femoral part of the wearer via the femoral support member. See Japanese patent laid open publication No. 2000-166997 (patent document 1), for instance.
The femoral support member disclosed in patent document 1 comprises an arm having a base end drivingly connected to a power actuator and a semi-cylindrical shell member attached to a free end of the arm and covering an outer half of the femoral part of the wearer. The femoral support member disclosed in Japanese patent laid open publication No. 2006-320349 (patent document 2) comprises an arm having a base end drivingly connected to a power actuator and a bifurcated stay member attached to a free end of the arm in a horizontal disposition, a pair of bifurcated free ends of the stay member interposing a femoral part of the wearer from front and behind via respective pad members supported by corresponding stiff support plates.